22 Tips that Help to Prevent Seasickness

by OldSailor on October 8, 2007

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This post is to make you aware about seasickness and how to prevent it. Seasickness is one form of motion sickness which a person experiences while traveling in automobiles, aero plane and ship. I am going to highlight more about seasickness.

A ship at sea experiences three degrees of movement in X, Y and Z axis called Roll, Pitch and Yaw due to wind and waves mostly during inclement weather. When our body is subjected to this combination of these three movements, we feel seasickness which is a very uneasy feeling, generally dizziness and nausea. Ships crew slowly adapts to this feeling. Severe seasickness may not even permit you to do your day to day activities.

Seasickness is felt due to conflict of senses of our body. When our body experiences combination of roll, pitch and yaw movements in the ship, the fluid filled canal in our inner ear that controls sense of balance of our body informs our brain that our body is moving. On the contrary, our eyes inform our brain that our body is stationary. This conflict of senses can cause our body to go out of balance (causes dizziness), which also affects our digestive system (causes nausea).

The tips to prevent seasickness are:

Before sailing out:

1. Take complete rest or sleep before sailing out.

2. Avoid acidic food, drinks and beverages four to six hours prior to sailing out.

3. Do not be in empty stomach before sailing by skipping your food.

4. Don’t over eat prior to sailing.

5. Drink plenty of water but not alcoholic beverages to avoid dehydration.

6. Have your ears cleaned before long voyage.

7. Be in physically fit condition.

While sailing:

8. Keep away from excessive heat or sunlight to avoid dehydration.

9. Stay away from gasoline and diesel fumes.

10. Don’t remain in enclosed spaces, be in cool,open air.

11. Try to be in the middle or center part of the ship where roll, pitch and yaw are less.

12. Try to keep away from people who have seasickness.

13. Chew small pieces of ginger.

14. Wear acupressure wristband if available

15. Drink Pepsi or Coke.

16. Look at far away objects closer to horizon than objects very closer to you.

17. If you sleep, sleep on your back.

18. Keep your mind occupied than thinking only about seasickness.

19. Keep your head still, against some support.

20. Don’t smoke or don’t be closer to smokers.

21. Avoid reading or watching videos.

22. Apply cold compresses to your eyes and neck.

In case of seasickness:

Have medicine on doctor’s/physician’s advice.

If most of the crew feels seasickness, ships course may be altered for some time to minimize ships roll, pitch and yaw movements.

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